Twelve Covers for a Christmas Postal History Sunday

Welcome to a special Christmas edition of Postal History Sunday.  I figured it was appropriate since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year.  The theme this week is inspired by the song, the Twelve Days of Christmas.  For those who are not familiar, the song begins with the first day of Christmas, which would be TODAY, and it continues until January 5.  But, since I don't really want to spread this out with twelve different blog posts - we'll just do them all here.

If you want to hear a rendition of the tune that inspired the blog post, I find the pandemic-inspired version by Pentatonix to be entertaining and well-done. It was one of many creative projects released that helped me, and likely many others, get through difficult times.  If the music isn't your thing, I suggest this well-cited wikipedia page on the history of the tune to engage those that like history and interesting background information.

And now, without further ado or preamble, I present

Twelve Covers for a Christmas Postal History Sunday

And, no, I am NOT going to type out each one over and over for subsequent verses. If that is critical for your enjoyment, I suggest you get used to using your mouse's scroll button and re-read the pertinent section.

So, the first cover for a Christmas Postal History Sunday features

ONE wrapper band on a newspaper

This Belluna, Italy, newspaper dated March 2, 1871, was enclosed by a paper wrapper band that served as a surface for the mailing address and postage.  The band also kept the newspaper together and prevented it from inconveniently opening up while it was in transit through the mail services.  The newspaper arrived at the Vittorio post office the same day it was mailed according the marking on the other side of the wrapper.

Wrapper bands were just one way items that qualified for reduced postage as printed matter could be mailed so that postal clerks could readily inspect the contents. To qualify items could not include personal messages and their presence would void the privilege of that reduced postage.  With a wrapper band, postal clerk could, if they wanted to, slip the item out of the wrapper, take a good look, and then slide it back in.  However, I can tell you that I have not slipped this newspaper out of the band myself.  After all, I can't read Italian all that well and I suspect the news might be a bit dated.

For those who are interested, this item was featured in a June Postal History Sunday.
 

TWO sides of a cover for an item mailed TWICE

Shown above is a circular (a letter or advertisement sent to a large number of people) that was sent in 1865 from Etna to Dryden, New York to Edward Welsh.  The lower half of the folded letter shows a very light Etna postmark dated April 7, 1865.  Mr. Welsh returned this letter via the postal service on April 10, sending it back after signing an agreement to perform some work, to the Town Clerk in Etna.  To avoid confusion, he crossed out his name and address.

There are two, two-cent postage stamps, each paying the rate for an unsealed circular in each direction it was mailed and giving us a fair number of two's for the second cover for Christmas.  If you would like to learn more about this item and the idea of a turned cover, you can check out this Postal History Sunday from March of 2021.

THREE feeds for one cent!

This advertising cover from the International Stock Food Company in 1905 certainly catches the eye.  And, if you do any work with animals, I think you would agree with me that it is highly unlikely that pigs, cows and horses would ever smile like this.  I don't think their facial muscles work that way.  

As far as the three feeds for one cent, it isn't entirely clear to me what they meant by it.  Do they have three types of feed that are mixed differently for different livestock and they all have the same price?  How much would I have gotten for a penny?

I'm not sure right now, but give me time and maybe I'll figure it out.

The International Stock Food Company still exists and is currently based in Canada, but at the time this cover was mailed the main factory was housed in Minneapolis, Minnesota (with another in Toronto).  The building there had formerly been an exposition building constructed in 1886 and housing an International Exposition that same year.  It was also the site of the 1892 Republican National Convention. The building was used as an entertainment venue until Marion Willis (Will) Savage purchased the building in 1903 for his growing feed business. 

photo of Minneapolis, MN factory circa 1900, courtesy Library of Congress

And, just because I like adding additional color to postal history items, Will Savage grew up in West Branch, Iowa, and worked as a clerk at the drug store.  His feeds took advantage of his pharmaceutical knowledge.  Savage also owned race horses, using their success to promote his feed.  He purchased a horse named Dan Patch for $60,000 in 1902 and that same horse set a record that would stand for almost 50 years at the Minnesota State Fair in 1906.

FOUR cents for a small envelope to a radiator shop

The brown four-cent postage stamp on this small envelope to the Groves Radiator Shop in Nashville, Tennessee, was a design that had many denominations (postage amounts) and depicted George Washington.  The design itself dates this item to some point in the 1910s to early 1920s.  At that time, a radiator shop might refer to the wide range of radiators in motorized vehicles, which were becoming more commonplace.  Or, it could refer to home heating devices.  Until I locate more specific information (if it exists) I'll not presume.  But, since we are talking Nashville and NOT Minneapolis, I suspect there was a bit less demand for heating.

I remember being in a shop when I was younger that had drawers of these envelopes.  Each one held a different part for the technician who worked there.  There were rubber gaskets and formed metal parts, among other things.  They were all organized with appropriate labels so the correct part could be quickly found.

An electrotype is a method of reproducing metal forms, creating precise copies of an original by running an electrical charge through a solution to deposit metal into a mold.  With a name like "Artistic Ad Company" this may not be radiator parts as I initially thought.  Perhaps someday I'll figure it out.  But for now - this simply serves as the fourth cover for a Christmas Postal History Sunday.

FIVE centimes due

It's hard to ignore the big bold "5 c" on this cover.  This 1864 letter from Madrid, Spain to France has a 12 cuarto postage stamp paying the postage required to get the letter from here to there.  Except for one thing.  The recipient had to pay a 5 centime "droit de factage" or "drayage right" for incoming mail from Spain.

We actually talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but I won't make you go back to that post unless you want to.  The Spanish collected a delivery charge of 1 cuarto for all incoming mail from other countries (called "derecho de cartero").  This practice continued despite a postal agreement with France that went into effect on February 2, 1860 that indicated payment of postage should cover all costs to the destination.  As a result, the French added their 5 centime droit de factage for incoming letters from Spain (but not other countries) in retaliation.

SIX different postmarks

Ok, you could argue that there are only FIVE different postal markings on this folded letter mailed from Switzerland to France in 1864.  But, what you don't see here is that the sixth is on the back (or verso) of this item.  

The great thing, in the eyes of a postal historian, about letters from this time period is that you can track the progress of a letter based on these markings.  The difficulty, sometimes, is that the meaning of the marking may not always be perfectly clear without a little research or help from other knowledgeable postal historians.

For example, this marking doesn't seem to give much information - at least not if we don't know what the "7" and the "A-E-D" stand for.  AED is an acronym that means "Affranchi a l'Etranger jusqu'a Destination" or "foreign mail paid to destination."  It serves the same purpose as the P.D. markings we often reference in Postal History Sunday (payee a destination).  The seven, on the other hand identifies the French exchange office, which is Huningue, located on the river that serves as border between the two countries.

And since we just focused on the number "seven" in the explanation for "six," we should move on to...

SEVEN stamps pay the postage

The envelope shown above was mailed from the then German colony of Kamerun to Geneve Switzerland in 1909.  The international letter rate (set by the Universal Postal Union) was 20 pfennig, which is overpaid here by 1 pfennig or seven copies of the 3 pfennig stamp issued for Kamerun.

These postage stamps featured the Kaiser's Imperial Yacht, SMJ Neue Hohenzollern, and the design was the same for each German Colony at that time. These stamps are often referred to as a "keytype" series because the same printing plates could be used except for the portion of the design that held the colony name, denomination, and currency.  You can get an introduction to the stamps of the German Colonies here if you have an interest. 

While there were 20 pfennig stamps created for Kamerun, this did not necessarily mean that they were always readily available to postal customers, which might give us a possible reason why this individual sent a letter with seven copies of the 3 pfennig stamp.  We're just glad they did because we could feature the cover in this slot of today's post.

EIGHT pictures of Amersfoort

This item is actually a very small envelope, which you can get a feel for when you recognize how big the stamp looks in comparison to the envelope.  The word "Drukwerk" indicates that this item qualified for the printed matter rate.  In other words, the content was "mass produced" and no personal message or individualized content was included.  

The envelope itself was not sealed shut.  Instead, it had a little slit in the back that allowed the tip of the envelope flap to tuck into it to keep the contents inside.

As for the contents....

There are eight small photocards of the sights one could see in Amersfoort in the Netherlands.  The cards themselves were originally connected to each other and the envelope.  They could be separated (as some of them are now) by tearing them apart at the perforations.

Perhaps one of the most unique photos of the eight is a picture of a large boulder called "De Kei." Apparently, a man named Everhard Meyster discovered a large boulder and bet his friends that he could get citizens to drag that rock into the city.  After a fair amount of "liquid encouragement" (beer) and fresh biscuits, he got several hundred individuals to do just that.

Afterwards, those who did drag the boulder into town were ridiculed and the rock was buried to hide their shame in 1672.  However, the story lived on and it was uncovered and placed on a pedestal as a symbol of pride rather than shame in 1903.

A meeting to attend on the NINTH day of the month

On the ninth day of June, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences was to meet in Boston.  At least that's what Chauncey Wright, the Recording Secretary was telling us in yet another printed matter item in this list of twelve covers.

I will never know if Joseph Hale Abbott of Beverly (near Boston) actually attended the event.  But, clearly, the letter WAS received and the invitation was kept.  How do I know that?  Well, this item is in my collection rather than being burnt in Abbot's fireplace.  That seems like a good hint that he had interest!

Joseph Hale Abbot from wikimedia commons

Abbott does appear in Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography, volume I, and his entry actually gives us some support that he might very well have attended.  After all, he was, for several years, the recording secretary for the Academy himself!  He also contributed many scientific papers on hydraulics and pneumatics to the journal published by this group.

This time "X" doesn't mean "TEN" - unless I want it to

By this point, you have probably figured out that I did not want to succumb to using numbers from the same aspect of each cover to fill each of the twelve covers for a Christmas Postal History Sunday.  I wanted to have a little fun with it and I was hoping you might enjoy the process as well!

This time around, we're going to feature the great big "X" in the middle of the cover shown above.  However, this "X" doesn't mean "ten" as you might think if it were referencing the Roman numeral.  And, the "X" does not mark "the spot" either!  Instead, the big bold "X" was a way for the postal clerk to indicate to the carrier of this letter that the postage was paid and that they did not need to collect more postage from the recipient.

For those who might like to learn more, other covers to Mantova are shown in this Postal History Sunday from a few months ago.  It shows another item that was fully paid and one that was not.

ELEVEN days travel to get to Galway

At this point, I am very surprised that there has not been a cover that features the 24-cent US postage stamp I like so much.  Well, never fear - I've found one that meets my needs for the 11th cover.

This letter was mailed in 1863 from Lynn, Massachusetts, to London, England.  The cost was twenty-four cents for a letter weighing no more than one half ounce and this item clearly met that requirement. There are several markings that show us it was considered "paid."  Two markings from Lynn, one from Boston and one from London all agreed the sender paid the proper duty.

The Hibernia, a ship that belonged to the Galway Line at the time, carried this letter.  It left Boston on November 3 and arrived ELEVEN days later at Galway.  The truly interesting thing for me about this cover is that the Galway Line carried very little of the mail.  According to Reports of the Postmaster General from 1864, only 1.8% of the trans-Atlantic mail traveled on Galway ships during the fiscal year.  In contrast, the Cunard Line took 43% and the Inman Line 20% across the sea to the United Kingdom.

TWELVE cent stamps times two mailed on the TWELFTH day of the TWELFTH month

I am not certain how I can get any better than this for the 12th cover for a Christmas Postal History Sunday. Rather than try to explain the cover more, I'm just going to rest on my laurels for a job well done.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Postal History Sunday. 

I wish you and yours the best and that you have the chance to be among those you care for most at this time of year - regardless of what holidays you may, or may not, choose to celebrate.  Merry Christmas to you and Happy Holidays to all.